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I believe that one of the biggest sources for hesitation and distrust comes from a lingering question in the mind of the executive that remains unanswered. WHY?
- Why is this important to me or my organization?
- Why should I care?
Too often we first address the question, WHAT?
- What is Lean Six Sigma?
- What are the tools of Lean Six Sigma?
- What are the steps to deploy Lean Six Sigma?
While the answers to these types of questions have their place, the answers tend to fall on the ears of an uninterested executive until we answer the question, WHY? Dr. Deming provided us with a good starting point to answering this question when he said,
"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory."
This quote starts to provide an answer to the question, "Why should I care?" I should care because the risk of going out of business is unacceptable.
This threat is clearly evident in the attitude expressed by Art Byrne, Former CEO of the Wiremold Company when he said,
"If you want to compete with me, and you are doing batch and I am doing Lean, then over time I am going to kill you. I am going to take your market share. You just don’t have a chance."
The point is that the competition is not standing still and we need to continually improve if we want to compete in a global marketplace.
Once we get past the WHY question we can then ask the question, "HOW are we going to accomplish this?" Generally speaking, the answer is that we have to challenge the status quo and cultivate a culture of continual improvement.
Finally, we can ask the question, "WHAT solutions are available to move us toward a culture of continual improvement?" At this point we can start exploring the methodologies and tools associated with Lean, Six Sigma, and Theory of Constraints. We have a compelling reason to be interested. At this point we have no choice but to act because the cost of failing to act is so catastrophic and unacceptable.
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